Page:Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians Volume 1.djvu/20

[viii] happened about the period of Semiramis's reign. Some objection, however, may be offered to this conjecture, especially on the plea of the invaders having been a pastoral people, while the Assyrians were an agricultural nation, with all the institutions and customs of a civilisation, already far advanced, in the time even of Semiramis. We might, therefore, look for them among the wandering hordes of Asia; and rather suppose them to have been a Scythian tribe, who, at that early epoch, already commenced the casual inroads, which they are known to have made in the same direction at subsequent periods.

The decision of this question I leave to the learned reader; all that can be positively asserted on the point is, that they have left no traces of their occupation of the country in the existing monuments, and the notion of their having been the founders of the pyramids is devoid of every shadow of probability.

The second chapter comprises the history of the country from the accession of the first king Menes, to the conquest of Egypt by Alexander; in which, after showing the great obscurity which prevails in the early part of Egyptian history, previous to the reign of Osirtasen I., I have drawn up an account of the monarchs, who ruled the country, from the existing monuments, and the authority of ancient writers; and, at the same time, introduced separately that part of the same period,